Valentine's Day was almost a week ago, which deems this post slightly overdue; but I had an epiphany that I felt obliged to pen down.

I always reckoned flowers were an impractical, meaningless gift, and I never particularly took a liking to them. Whenever the subject was broached, my immediate response would be, "They're pointless. I mean, I appreciate the thought, but what do you expect me to do with them?"

And honestly, what do you expect people to do with flowers? Sure, they're ecstatic in that moment where they see, feel, and receive the flowers; they're happy for the subsequent - say, 12 hours each time they cast a glance at the stalk (or bouquet).

But what next?

Well, what better to do than to watch it gradually droop, blacken, and wilt, right? And in that process, whine and submit to absolute devastation as they witness what was once beautiful, turn into something foul and putrefied.

And what more value could such flowers add to a person on this "special day", than it does to florists? Clearly, it is but an excuse for sheer commercialization.

Or so I held, until this Valentine's Day.

Now, don't get me wrong - I still subscribe to the belief that it is impractical and horribly commercialized. But I realised I never truly "appreciated the thought" behind these flowers, as I so claimed. I never saw what emotions or messages these flowers conveyed, which far supercedes every material aspect that downplays this gift.

Would the sender not have known that flowers are sold at exorbitant rates on Valentine's Day?
Would the sender not comprehend their utility (or lack of it)?

Yet none of that matters; because the true gift lies not in the tangible and ephemeral, but in what you cannot grasp. And it is precisely these immaterial things that you will forever hold - the knowledge that someone had you in their thoughts, wanted you to be happy, and was willing to give up what is theirs to see to that, regardless of the cost.


This Valentine's Day and its accompanying gifts yielded more meaning to me; and for that, I am thankful.